Thanks for all the advice. I am going to go with bone for the time being. I used to never try anything new and now am up for testing things out. I also saw a few places that manufacture glass needles but they are mostly much thicker than I commonly work with. At one point I was looking into narwhal and walrus ivory but they are so prohibitively expensive I have moved on.

Good luck on that search. I have never seen any products in the US made from walrus ivory. However you live in Canada there might be a possibility that searching Native websites you might find something like that. Best of searches.

I've never come across bone knitting needles but have a few bone crochet hooks. I also have a crochet hook [antique] that I believe is ivory. One thing to remember is that you have to be a bit careful...I snapped the head off of one bone hook by trying to crochet a very fat yarn with it, forgetting that a small hook won't work with thick yarn. -- Books, knitting, cats, fountain pens...Life is Good.

I did a bit of Internet research and found some bone needles for sale at this website...use the find function as the bone needles are about halfway down the page. I can't speak to the reliability of either of the following sites.

I think you will find it really difficult to get walrus ivory needles because they are banned in the US "due to their impact on endangered species, and needles made from them are virtually impossible to find." --- source Wikipedia.